MOOSIC -- People in one community in Lackawanna County said they are beginning to feel like their borough is becoming an island. A second heavily-travelled bridge in Moosic will be shut down to one lane later this month for repairs.
The bridge that carries Birney Avenue over Spring Brook in Moosic. PennDOT officials said it will be shut down to one lane starting on April 21st for bridge repairs.
People in Moosic said that work is a big deal because it's part of a detour because of another bridge that's closed.
Susan Jones who owns Delia's Hoagies on Main Street in Moosic just reached a third anniversary she would rather not celebrate. Three years since the bridge directly next to her store was closed for repairs. And still no repairs.
"It was a Friday April 8th, three years on Tuesday. And it was a Friday in Lent when they shut it down. So you can see what it did to my business," Jones said.
Jones was still cranking out the ever-popular tuna hoagies Friday. But, since the bridge shut down, she said business has been down 50%.
Getting to work is tough too, because the detour around the Main Street bridge often gets clogged.
"Not good, not good, it hasn't changed all along. It's really not improving, we have a lot of customers come in and they're surprised that we are here. They don't think we're here because they just figured when the bridge shut down we shut down," Jones added.
The Main Street bridge belongs to Lackawanna County. Engineers said work will start there later this year, but not before the state starts another project in the borough.
On April 21st, PennDOT workers are scheduled to start repairs on a bridge on Birney Avenue and it will be shut down to one lane. Here's the catch though, that bridge is part of the detour around the long-closed Main Street Bridge.
That news made people in this part of Lackawanna County feel like there's no way out.
"We were kind of kidding the other night, we said basically Moosic or Old Forge can become an island. It's kind of a hard thing, unfortunately the infrastructure needs to be taken care of," said Sal Luzio of Old Forge.
PennDOT officials said traffic will be shut down to one lane on Birney Avenue April 21st. No word on how long those repairs will last.
Lackawanna County officials said the Main Street Bridge project is still in the design phase. You won't see work there until later on this year.